An illegally arrested mother is saved by her phone

Social services can't even keep track of court orders

On April 6 I reported on the disturbing story of Michelle Freedman, a long-time family-court barrister, who for utterly bizarre reasons fell foul of the system herself. Only in the nick of time did she manage last December to escape, quite legally, with her two daughters to Israel, of which Miss Freedman is a citizen, before Barnet Council’s social workers could seize her own children. The family settled happily into their new life. In February a circuit court judge excoriated Barnet for its conduct and closed the case.

Last week Miss Freedman returned to England to fill three large suitcases with clothes and belongings left behind in their rush to leave the country. At Luton airport on Tuesday, just as she was boarding an El Al plane to return to Israel, she was detained by three policemen and a policewoman. Showing her a piece of paper from the tipstaff’s office, headed “Child Abduction”, and ordering her arrest, they demanded that she hand over her passport and other documents, including her driving licence.

Her thoughts raced wildly in every direction. Might she soon be facing two years in Holloway prison, with her beloved children 2,000 miles away? She was taken to a baggage room where the policewoman went through every item in the suitcases, which had been taken off the aircraft. But while this was proceeding, she looked again at the paper under which she had been arrested and saw that it referred to an order dated last December. Fortunately, she was able to find on her phone an email from her solicitor in February with the wording of the order given later by another court, voiding the earlier one and closing the case. After lengthy discussions, the police agreed to send a copy of this email to the tipstaff’s office. Eventually, word came back that she could be released and all her documents returned. But, of course, she had missed her plane and imagined she would have to pay for a new flight the next day.

After checking with El Al, a policeman reported that it had another flight leaving Heathrow that evening and would give her a complimentary ticket. Early next morning, to her astonished relief, she was reunited with her overjoyed family.

But a puzzle remains: when the judge gave his order in February, Barnet Council was instructed to communicate it to the tipstaff’s office, to show that, since her case was closed, she was now free to enter and leave Britain without interference. Having emailed the council’s lawyer to ask why the order was not passed on, and despite a further email to the lawyer on her behalf from John Hemming MP, Miss Freedman is still awaiting a full explanation.

Also last week, as we see how our “child protection” system continues to go off the rails, it was reported that more young girls removed from their parents, in this case living under the care of Essex County Council, are alleged to have been forced into prostitution by a group of British Pakistani men (who deny the charges). Meanwhile, in Scotland, under the “Getting it right for every child” scheme, social workers are making children fill in a questionnaire rating the adequacy of their parents on a scale of 1 to 10. Presumably, this is trawling for clues as to whether there is a case for taking the little mites into care.